No Verdict in Philly Priest, Teacher Abuse Case

Philadelphia Inquirer
January 29, 2013

http://www.ydr.com/state/ci_22474446/no-verdict-philly-priest-teacher-abuse-case

A Philadelphia jury has asked for a teacher's suicide note as they weigh abuse charges against the teacher and a Roman Catholic priest.

The jury is set to return Wednesday for a fifth day of deliberations.

The 24-year-old accuser says he was raped as a child at a northeast Philadelphia parish by the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and sixth-grade teacher Bernard Shero.

In the suicide note, Shero apologizes to his parents for the notoriety of the looming abuse charges. He took sleeping pills before his 2011 arrest, but survived.

The trial is an outgrowth of a grand jury investigation that led to the child-endangerment conviction of Monsignor William Lynn, a longtime official with the Philadelphia archdiocese.

Eight men and four women are serving on the jury.